Stash Busting Sew-Along

Have you ever wanted to take a peak into someone else’s fabric stash? Well here are a few photos of what’s in mine.

Ever since my last baby was born I’ve been enviously reading about all of the exciting sew-alongs that people have been organizing. I’ve been dying to participate, but a new baby sure cuts down the time available for that sort of thing. Until now!

I only have a small stash, just one box, but I do want to use it up, so here’s my pledge:

“I, Shannon, commit to using 4 pieces of stash fabric in 2013.”

It’s not a lot, but I want to keep my sewing fun.

And what exactly is in my stash, you ask? I got everything out and measured it. It’s so much easier to deal with,now that it is organized. Some of my stash is going to be pretty easy to sew up. I have about 1.3m of denim, a bit of quilting cotton that will make a dress for one of the kids, some brown corduroy.

Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy quilting cotton Flower and Dot, in green (under 1m). This one has been in my stash for just a couple of months.Synthetic baby silk (4.5m) in black with a pink and white floral pattern. This has been in my stash for at least five years. I had planned to make a dress with it.

But some things are a bit trickier to use up: some super stretchy red cotton that was meant for maternity wear a couple of pregnancies ago, about 1.5m of navy stretch velour, 1.5m of super plush faux fur in a jaguar colour scheme. If you have any suggestions for that faux fur, leave them in the comments.

Jaguar faux fur (1.5m) left over from Halloween costumes from a couple of years ago. This has been in my stash since 2010.Blue stretch velour (1.5m) left over from another Halloween costume. This has been in my stash for about ten years.

And the award for longest time spent in the stash goes to a 1.8m piece of 100 per cent pure silk. It’s a very pink shade of red and incredibly difficult to photograph. My late father brought it back for me on a trip to China in the 1980s. As you can see, it still has the price tag on it. He paid 160 Hong Kong dollars for this piece, which converts to about $20 CDN. In today’s prices, that would be about $40 CDN. It’s a great piece of fabric, but I’m more of a signal red fan. What do you think? Should it become a blouse? Or a super luxurious lining for a coat? Suggestions welcome.

A piece of red silk (1.8m) that my late father brought back from a trip to China in the 1980s. The price tag is still on it.

3 thoughts on “Stash Busting Sew-Along”

My mom has issues with not being able to pass up fabric at all the thrift stores she frequents. So she tries to hide some at my house…. her stash is also way bigger than mine. (She hit a fabric store that was closing. OY vey. But she got some deals!)

The faux fur could be used as gloves or a hat perhaps? Depending on the thickness you could also make a fall kid’s jacket out of it, or a shawl wrap?Jennifer recently posted…Simplicity 1783 pants: The waistband